Several new art exhibitions open all over Lethbridge this week.
Artists are generally perceived as carrying  a lot of baggage, both literally and figuratively, so with that in mind, a group of local artists, the Potemkin Collective, is using ‘Baggage’ as the theme for their new exhibit opening up on Saturday in the three southern facing  store fronts of the old Paramount Theatre building downtown.
“Baggage is reflected in how much baggage  you carry with you, both physically and socially, specifically how you transfer works and store them,” observed Potemkin Collective member Darcy Logan, preparing to accept an unknown number of submissions at the Bowman Art Gallery.
 He said artists could take whatever angle they wanted as long as they included luggage as part of the piece.
“The only stipulation was  was that baggage had to be part of  the work,” he said adding he is expecting  between 15-30 artists to participate in the exhibition.
“We have no idea what will be coming until we actually receive them. We just put the word out before Christmas,” he said.
“But we’ll have some interesting work,” he said adding the Potemkin Collective welcomes any artists to contribute to their shows.
 They also like using abandoned spaces, such as the Ruin and Reclamation show which took place last May in the abandoned Leo Singer clothing store.
This time artist Rick Gillis  talked to the owners of the building.
“They were more than willing to let us use the space,” he continued, adding he is still working on his piece for the exhibit.
“I’m still working on mine. It’s a collaboration with Robert Bechtel. It’s a steamer trunk  with peephole in it which looks bigger on the inside because there are mirrors,” he enthused.
The opening reception is March 13 from 7-11 p.m. in the new ground floor office spaces. It will also be open  March 18-20 from 1-4 p.m.

That is only one of several exhibits premiering this weekend.
also on Saturday, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery opens two exhibits. Nanna Debois Buhl’s ‘Looking for Donkeys’ and Brendan Tang’s ‘Manga Ormolu’ run from  March 13-April 25.

Buhl is a New York based Danish artist who brings her body of work exploring Danish  colonial history in the U.S. Virgin Islands including elements of  African and Caribbean histories through photography, drawing, film and text.
Tang’s exhibition is ceramics which are  contemporary but still have roots in  ancient traditions.  So Ming Dynasty style vessels  are combined with  things like robotic armatures, mechanical hulls and rocket thrusters.
The artists will be speaking at 7 p.m. that night.
 Down the street, the Trianon Gallery is also opening a new exhibit. The opening reception for Gordon Payne’s ‘Walks in the Wood’ is at 9 p.m. March 13. Payne is speaking  at the university at noon on  Monday, March 15 at noon.

But the University of Lethbridge opens a couple new exhibits on Friday night. Most exciting,  the annual  Curated Student Exhibition premieres in the main gallery, March 12  from 8-10 p.m.  The exhibitions, open only to senior art majors, gives the students a realistic experience with the process of  applying  for exhibitions and receiving feedback from established curator Sandra Dyck.
Upstairs, next to the Library, in the Helen Christou Galley, Semiotica: The Persuasion of Text is on display as well. It features five selections of conceptual art from the University of Lethbridge Art Collection which incorporate English text. Both exhibits run until April 9.

—By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

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